as they left for hawaii. but a little earlier in the day, he met with senate majority leader harry reid and spoke with house speaker john bainer and addressed the nation on the topic of avoiding the fiscal cliff. called on lawmakers to compromi compromise, to get a deal done. he acknowledged time has run out for getting a larger package. what they need to focus on now is getting a smaller deal that will avoid taxes from going up on middle class americans. meanwhile, a very rough friday for house speaker john boehner, really spent most of the day, explaining what has been views as a political blow, when on thursday, many republicans refused to back his plan b. that is speaker boehner's alternative plan for avoiding the fiscal cliff and called for allowing rates to go up on those making $1 million or more. here is a little more of what house speaker john boehner and president obama had to say on friday. take a listen. >> we have a number of our members who didn't want to be perceived as having raised taxes. >>